Deadbeat Illinois: $11M IOU forces charity to turn away clients

CHICAGO — Social worker Frank Harris and his staff have felt the pain of saying “sorry” to even more people seeking treatment for their drug addictions.

By Dean Olsen

Journal Standard

By Dean Olsen

Posted Mar. 25, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Mar 25, 2013 at 5:12 PM

By Dean Olsen

Posted Mar. 25, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Mar 25, 2013 at 5:12 PM

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CHICAGO — Social worker Frank Harris and his staff have felt the pain of saying “sorry” to even more people seeking treatment for their drug addictions.

“Who wants to be known as the state that can’t help those who need help the most?” he asked.

Chronic payment delays from state government have forced Lutheran Social Services of Illinois to lay off 20 percent of the staff Harris supervises at the Kenmore Center treatment facility.

The 5,630 substance abusers it was able to treat in the Chicago area in fiscal 2008 dropped to 4,464 in the fiscal year that ended June 30.

It’s likely that many people turned away by Kenmore haven’t been able to find timely treatment elsewhere.

“They’re much more likely to relapse if they don’t have a place to go,” said David Jensen, chief operating officer of Lutheran Social Services.

The Des Plaines-based nonprofit is one of the largest charitable agencies in the state, employing more than 2,000 people at 83 sites. The workers provide everything from drug treatment, Head Start classes and foster-care case management to at-home care for older adults and people with developmental disabilities.

But more than half of the agency’s funding comes from state and federal sources — the state is the single largest payer — so the agency and many of its 108,000 clients have felt the pinch.

Since 2008, the amount the state owes the agency has skyrocketed, from $5 million to as much as $11 million; that’s 10 percent of its $112 million total annual revenues.

Lutheran is grateful for the state money and grateful for the 67 percent increase in the state’s personal income-tax rate in 2011. Without the increase, the financial problems probably would be worse, agency officials said.

But chronic payment delays and actual funding cuts have led to borrowing, layoffs, program cutbacks and deferral of repairs to the agency’s buildings.

The employee pension plan was frozen four years ago and replaced with a defined-benefit program, similar to a 401(k) plan. The agency hasn’t been able to provide a matching contribution the past two years. Employees have gone without raises for several years, Jensen said.

Harris, director of clinical services at Kenmore, has seen 14 of his co-workers laid off over the past six years, leaving 50 workers scrambling to provide attention to adults in a 20-bed detoxification unit, a 16-bed rehabilitation unit and a 17-bed halfway house.

The state’s backlog caused Lutheran to close Men’s Residence South in November; the 28-bed halfway house on Chicago’s South Side has served hundreds of recovering drug addicts for 33 years.

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Lawmakers often tell Lutheran Social Services officials that the agency’s services are valuable. They also say the General Assembly first must come up with a solution to the state’s growing pension liabilities.

Jennifer DeLeon, Lutheran’s director of government relations, said the agency doesn’t favor one pension solution over another. She implores lawmakers to not wait until the pension crisis is solved before they tend to the needs of human-service providers.

“I tell them, ‘By the time you do that, I hope we’re still around’,” she said.

Jo Ann Dollard, the agency’s director of communications, said its programs are cost-effective.

“When we’re not providing these folks services, they will be served in an emergency room, which is not a good solution,” she said.